Several years ago my father made some comment along the lines of “There are only about five different movies in the world.” An exaggeration, of course, but when he explained what he meant I had to agree. Nothing new under the sun, as the saying goes. A handful of plots and some variations. Over and over. Sometimes blatant imitation.
The older I get, the more I feel like I have already watched what I am watching.
I read quite a bit, but television is very good for certain times and moods. When my husband and I married we agreed on using a particular streaming program/disc service that starts with an N, and avoiding cable or dish service. No commercials, so we save time and plenty of money, plus we control our own programing to a large extent. Nine years have passed, and frankly I don’t think we have missed much.
Recently, I have been enjoying Switched at Birth, a family oriented show. A portion of the main characters are deaf/hearing impaired and there are whole sections of the show that are performed in signed dialog, sometimes without speech or background noise of any kind. This makes it harder to go to the kitchen for a snack because I must watch the screen for subtitles, but I am thrilled to see something NEW on television.
I also like the BBC show Sherlock. It is odd and sometimes confusing. I feel challenged. How refreshing. Also, I like that one of the stars is named Benedict Cumberbatch. Best actor name since Randolph Mantooth.
If you have any favorite shows or films that don’t make you feel like you have already seen them, and are possibly even original, please share!
A Clean Surface. 
Reminds me of a favorite song, Barenaked Ladies “It’s all been done!”
We just started watching Silicon Valley lately, from HBO, and really enjoying it. But a lot of the appeal is the resonance with our experience at eBay and our circle of startup-studded friends and family. 🙂
We have used local libraries to find unusual viewing fare. For instance, the library in Burlingame, Ca., has the most amazing collection of movies on DVDs featuring the Brazilian “bombshell,” as she was called, Carmen Miranda. She is very funny and the movies are a hoot, much of the time.